Saturday, November 16, 2013

Refrigerator Oatmeal Recipes

By now most of you have probably heard of the Refrigerator Oatmeal craze. If you are like me, at first you kind of wrinkled your nose at the weird idea of oatmeal being cold and moved on. If you are more open-minded, you thought, "Great idea! I should try that!"

It took a little while, but eventually I joined those of you in the latter group. Now I eat refrigerator oatmeal nearly every morning, because:

It's incredibly easy

It's super quick

It's full of healthy ingredients

It helps my stubborn stomach to digest things throughout the day

It happens to be delicious, not weird

So without any nose wrinkling and no more ado, let's make some Refrigerator Oatmeals!

My Supplies

What I use and why:

Jar - I prefer the "Elite® Half Pint (8-oz.) Wide Mouth Jars by Ball®" as they are the perfect portion for me, and they look so squat and adorableYogurt - Greek yogurt has the best texture, in my opinion, plus it is healthiest. I like Zoi Honey Greek Yogurt because (in my area) it has the most live and active cultures, and it doesn't have a bunch of junk added to itOats - just some regular rolled oats from the bulk section - no instant or anything like thatSeeds - Chia seeds happen to be the most popular in Refrigerator Oatmeal, and I'm just fine with that; I love those pretty little thingsMilk - My stomach would complain if I used cow's milk, so I opt for a non-dairy alternative - oat milk is my favouriteFruit/Misc. - Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, apples, bananas, nut butter, cinnamon... I could go on and on. I'll give you my absolute favourite recipes below.

The Basics

So with that all being said, feel free to use whatever types of milk, fruit, etc. you would like to fit those ingredient categories, and make them whatever size you want. But for ease of communication, let's just assume for now that you are making them as I do.

When that is the case, here is what you need:

Half-Pint Jar

1/4 cup Yogurt

1/3 cup Milk

1/3 cup Rolled Oats

2-3 tsp (or 1 tbsp) Seeds

Other to fill

- Dump the oats and milk into your jar.
- Plop in the yogurt and sprinkle in the seeds. Stir. (it isn't strictly necessary to stir until the end, but stirring now will make your life a lot easier)
- The jar will be most of the way full at this point, so now just top it off with anything you would like and stir it well. Three averagely sized strawberries seem to be perfect most of the time, a handful of blueberries will do... and don't be afraid to mix and match! No reason not to have a strawberry/blueberry/raspberry/banana oatmeal.
- Refrigerate for a few hours until it thickens (I just do overnight).

I've done lots of experimenting with these over the past month or so; some attempts that sounded delicious turned out to be strange, some boring ones turned out to be just perfect the way they were, and a lot were decent enough to enjoy once or twice. The only ones I didn't like were those with wheat germ in them; it just tasted bitter. Oh well. Next I'm going to try adding Matcha!

One more thing before we get to the recipes: you can make these in giant batches for the week. I have eight jars at the moment, so four days of breakfast for me and the boyfriend. I just stir all the basic ingredients x8 in a mixing bowl (plus some extra milk - it seems to disappear somewhat in bulk), divide the mixture up between jars, and then flavour them all individually. I'm also going to chalkboard the inside of the circle on tops of those lids, so I can label each flavour as needed.

My Favourite Recipes

As always, I love meals that you really can't go wrong with unless you try. This is one of those recipes, so feel free to use my instructions as loose guidelines until you figure out what works best for your taste.

Raspberry Refrigerator Oatmeal

Half-Pint Jar

1/4 cup Honey Greek Yogurt

1/3 cup Oat Milk

1/3 cup Rolled Oats

2 tsp Chia Seeds

Raspberries to fill

Add everything but the raspberries and stir. Add the fruit, and as you stir, smoosh the raspberries just a bit to colour and flavour the whole oatmeal. Refrigerate.

Blueberry Maple Refrigerator Oatmeal

Half-Pint Jar

1/4 cup Honey Greek Yogurt

1/3 cup Oat Milk

1/3 cup Rolled Oats

2 tsp Chia Seeds

2 tsp Maple Syrup

Blueberries to fill

Add everything but the blueberries and stir. Top it off with the blueberries and stir a final time. Refrigerate.

Pomegranate Refrigerator Oatmeal

Half-Pint Jar

1/4 cup Honey Greek Yogurt

1/3 cup Oat Milk

1/3 cup Rolled Oats

2 tsp Chia Seeds

1/4 cup Pomegranate Arils

Add everything but the pomegranate and stir. Top it off with the arils and stir a final time. Refrigerate.

Strawberry Cacao Refrigerator Oatmeal

Half-Pint Jar

1/4 cup Honey Greek Yogurt

1/3 cup Oat Milk

1/3 cup Rolled Oats

2 tsp Chia Seeds

1 tsp Cacao Powder

1 tsp Cacao Nibs

3 Strawberries

Add the yogurt, milk, oats, seeds, and powder and stir. Add the nibs, slice and add the strawberries, and stir. Refrigerate.

Your Turn!

Now time to make your own! Try banana-nut with cinnamon. Or an applesauce one. Definitely mix berries - I love huckleberry/strawberry/raspberry. Add honey or jam for sweetness, if need be. Try the Matcha before I do and tell me how it is because I'm slightly scared. Just be creative, and follow your tastebuds!

(Hmm I made a delicious smoothie with pumpkin butter the other day... I'll bet oatmeals would be great with that!)

Anyway, have you got any of your own scrumptious recipes that deserve a shout out? Let me know!